ProPublica has hired Rui Kaneya as a senior editor to help oversee investigative projects for its Local Reporting Network. He will start on Jan. 24.
For the past four years, Kaneya has been a reporter and editor at the Center for Public Integrity, where he worked on long-term investigative projects focused on politics, criminal justice, health and finance. As interim editor of the money and democracy team, Kaneya led the newsroom’s COVID-19 coverage at the beginning of the pandemic. He also oversaw “System Failure,” a multipart project in partnership with Vox that examined how the Trump administration’s deregulatory moves were affecting the health and safety of Americans.
As a reporter, Kaneya helped lead “Copy, Paste, Legislate,” a 2019 project that looked at how special interest groups use “model legislation” to promote their priorities in statehouses across the country. The two-year project, produced in partnership with USA Today and The Arizona Republic, was awarded the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. Before joining Public Integrity, Kaneya was an investigative reporter for Honolulu Civil Beat, where he covered social justice issues in the islands. He previously served as a correspondent for the Columbia Journalism Review and as a reporter and editor at The Chicago Reporter.
In addition to the Goldsmith Prize, Kaneya has won dozens of other journalism awards, including the Edward R. Murrow Award, the EPPY Award and the Watchdog Award for Excellence in Public Interest Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is also a recipient of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice Fellowship in Criminal Justice Investigative Reporting, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Minority Fellowship and the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Minority Fellowship.
"It is a privilege to have Rui join us as senior editor,” said Sarah Blustain, deputy editor, local, for ProPublica. “His broad range of journalistic experience — as both reporter and editor, in both local and national investigative news — will make him a true resource for ProPublica and the Local Reporting Network partners."
"I’m thrilled and honored to join ProPublica to help local reporters with their dream investigative projects,” said Kaneya. “I love that I get to play an important role in keeping local accountability journalism alive. I can’t wait to get started."
